TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalSouthern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees working with anti-NRA group
The co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center is now involved with an anti-NRA group, which lists him as their founder on their website.
But Morris Dees said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that he did not create The Association for Responsible Gun Ownership (TARGO). A webpage on the TARGO website lists "our founder's legacy," with the headline “The man that took down the KKK is now taking on the NRA.”
Dees said he joined an organization called the Justice Center for America, which created TARGO.
“I didn’t found the group,” Dees said. “They just asked me to work with them. They’re wonderful people.”
Read more: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/12/05/morris-dees-works-anti-nra-group-splc-co-founder-southern-poverty-law-center/2623415001/
Tuscaloosa considering daytime curfew for its students
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama city’s officials are considering new curfew laws during school hours to try to discourage students from skipping class.
The Tuscaloosa City Council’s public safety committee approved a proposal that would make it illegal for minors to be unaccompanied in public from 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. any Monday through Friday that city schools are in session.
The Tuscaloosa News reports the full council will consider the curfew next month.
If approved, the new rules would begin in January. A parent could be cited if a minor is found in violation. City Attorney Glenda Webb says the penalties could include up to a $500 fine and up to six months in jail.
Read more: https://www.apr.org/post/tuscaloosa-considering-daytime-curfew-its-students
Sewell's bill to restore voting rights protections passes House
After four attempts under a Republican-led House, Rep. Terri Sewell’s bill to reinstate voting protections passed the House on its fifth try under Democratic control in a party-line vote.
Only one Republican joined Democrats on Friday to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act, 228—187.
Passage of the legislation had been a top priority for Sewell, a Democrat raised in Selma who represents Birmingham and the Black Belt. She has carried the bill since 2015, two years after sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were gutted by the Supreme Court decision Shelby County v. Holder. Among those provisions were requirements for several states, including Alabama, to clear any changes in election rules with the federal government.
“Voting is personal to me not just because I represent Alabama’s civil rights district, but because it was on the streets of my hometown of Selma that Foot Soldiers shed their blood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge so that all Americans, regardless of race, could vote,” Sewell said on the House floor.
Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/12/sewells-bill-to-restore-voting-rights-protections-passes-house.html
The Alabama Democratic Party versus ... a whole bunch of people
Months ago, everyone involved in the internecine fight within the Alabama Democratic Party predicted it would end in court.
The circuit court docket Thursday morning in Montgomery was short. A couple of civil cases regarding car wrecks and insurance claims. A juvenile offender case the judge heard in chambers.
And then there was the main event that the clerk read off her sheet.
“The Alabama Democratic Party versus … a whole bunch of people.”
Here everyone is — or their lawyers, at least.
In court. As predicted.
Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/12/the-alabama-democratic-party-versus-a-whole-bunch-of-people.html
============
Judge delays decision on suit over Alabama Democratic chair
A judge says a lawsuit filed by the longtime chair of the Alabama Democratic Party challenging a newly elected leader can continue, at least for now.
Montgomery Circuit Judge Greg Griffin said Thursday he will wait for a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court before deciding whether to dismiss the lawsuit filed by party chair Nancy Worley. The justices are currently considering an earlier appeal in the dispute. State Rep. Chris England and Worley each claim to be the properly elected state party chair.
The Democratic National Committee recognizes England, but Worley claims his election was illegitimate.
https://www.apr.org/post/judge-delays-decision-suit-over-alabama-democratic-chair
Can Pete Buttigieg win Alabama's Democratic presidential primary?
Pete Buttigieg is surging in Iowa and New Hampshire where he’s emerged as a viable alternative to Joe Biden, is packing in large crowds, and has enthusiastic young Mayor Pete supporters creating coordinated dance moves during campaign appearances.
The scene was much more subdued in Alabama where the first openly gay man to make a major run for the presidency made stops in Montgomery and Birmingham this week. During his recent Southern trip, Buttigieg gathered before smaller audiences during spirited roundtables where he was peppered with questions about his standing with black voters. Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson has since told media outlets that she can’t see him winning their support less than three months before the Democratic presidential primary.
“I know he has some supporters … but I don’t think he has strong support and I don’t think as a candidate, he has really clarified his position on issues of greatest concerns to African Americans,” said John Zippert, immediate past president of the Alabama New South Coalition, an organization of black activists formed in 1986.
‘Missteps’
In Alabama, like South Carolina, Buttigieg has a lot of work to do. He’s polling in the single digits in South Carolina where a majority of Democratic voters are black. The South Carolina primary is Feb. 29. In Alabama, where 52 delegates are at stake on March 3, 60% of voters during the 2016 presidential election were non-white.
Read more: https://www.al.com/politics/2019/12/can-pete-buttigieg-win-alabamas-democratic-presidential-primary.html
San Diego, California Man Pleads Guilty to Role in Million Dollar Scheme Targeting Thousands of U.S.
San Diego, California Man Pleads Guilty to Role in Million Dollar Scheme Targeting Thousands of U.S. Servicemembers and VeteransIn San Antonio, 32-year-old Trorice Crawford of San Diego, California, admitted his role in an identity-theft and fraud scheme that victimized thousands of U.S. servicemembers and veterans, announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash, Deputy Assistant Attorney General David Morrell, and Director Gustav Eyler of the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch.
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Farrer yesterday afternoon, Crawford pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. By pleading guilty, Crawford admitted that from May 2017 to July 2019, he conspired with Robert Wayne Boling, Jr. (a U.S. citizen), and others to steal money belonging to U.S. Servicemembers and veterans. By pleading guilty, Crawford admitted to recruiting at least 30 individuals (aka “money mules”) who provided their bank account information to receive funds stolen from military affiliated individuals. On average, each unauthorized transfer from a victim’s accounts ranged from between $8,000 to $13,000. Crawford kept a percentage of the withdrawn funds for himself and oversaw the transmission of the remaining amounts by means of international money remittance services to Boling and others in the Philippines.
Crawford faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He remains in federal custody awaiting sentencing scheduled for 10:30am on March 5, 2020, before Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio.
In October, co-defendant Frederick Brown, age 38 of Las Vegas, NV, pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with this scheme. Brown, a former civilian medical records administrator for the U.S. Army at the 65th Medical Brigade, Yongsan Garrison, South Korea, admitted that while logged into the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, he illegally captured on his cell phone personal identifying information (PII) of thousands of military members, including names, social security numbers, DOD ID numbers, dates of birth, and contact information. Brown further admitted that he subsequently provided that stolen data to Boling so that Boling and others could exploit the information in various ways to access Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs benefits sites and steal millions of dollars.
Two Members of the Romanian Cybercriminal Enterprise Bayrob Group Sentenced on 21 Counts
TWO MEMBERS OF THE ROMANIAN CYBERCRIMINAL ENTERPRISE BAYROB GROUP SENTENCED ON 21 COUNTS RELATING TO INFECTING OVER 400,000 VICTIM COMPUTERS WITH MALWARE AND STEALING AT LEAST $4 MILLION
Bogdan Nicolescu, 37, and Radu Miclaus, 37, both from Bucharest, Romania, were sentenced to 20 years and 18 years, respectively, for their roles in a scheme to, among other things, infect more than 400,000 computers with malware and gain access to credit card and other information for later sale on dark market websites.
According to testimony at trial and court documents, Nicolescu, Miclaus, and others operated a criminal enterprise referred to as the “Bayrob Group” from Bucharest, Romania. It began in 2007 with the development of proprietary malware, which they disseminated through malicious emails purporting to be legitimate emails from entities and agencies such as Western Union, Norton AntiVirus, and the IRS. When recipients clicked on an attached file, the malware secretly installed itself onto their computers.
This malware harvested email addresses from the infected computer, such as from contact lists or email accounts, and then sent malicious emails to these harvested email addresses. By using the infected computers to reach out and control additional computers, the defendants infected and controlled more than 400,000 individual computers, primarily in the United States.
In addition to using the infected network to expand its size, Nicolescu, Miclaus, and other members of the Bayrob Group used the collective processing power of the computer network to solve complex algorithms for the financial benefit of the group, a process known as cryptocurrency mining.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndoh/pr/two-members-romanian-cybercriminal-enterprise-bayrob-group-sentenced-21-counts-relating
Ericsson Agrees To Pay More Than $1 Billion To Resolve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Case
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”), Brian A. Benczkowski, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), and Don Fort, Chief of the Criminal Investigation Division, Internal Revenue Service (“IRS-CI”), announced today the filing of criminal charges against TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (“ERICSSON”), a multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Sweden, and its subsidiary ERICSSON EGYPT LTD. (“ERICSSON EGYPT”) for conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) by bribing government officials, falsifying books and records, and failing to implement reasonable internal accounting controls. The resolutions cover criminal conduct in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Kuwait.
Mr. Berman also announced that in connection with the filed charges, ERICSSON EGYPT pled guilty today before United States District Judge Alison J. Nathan, and SDNY and DOJ entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (“DPA”) with ERICSSON. Pursuant to the DPA, ERICSSON admitted to participating in the charged conspiracy. ERICSSON will pay a total criminal penalty of $520,650,432 to the United States, which includes a $9,520,000 criminal fine that ERICSSON agreed to pay on behalf of ERICSSON EGYPT. ERICSSON also agreed to implement rigorous internal controls, retain an independent compliance monitor for a term of three years, and cooperate fully with the Government in any ongoing investigations.
In related proceedings, ERICSSON reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Under the terms of its civil resolution with the SEC, ERICSSON agreed to pay $539,920,000 in disgorgement of profits and prejudgment interest, which, together with the criminal penalty paid to the United States, yields total criminal and regulatory penalties to be paid by ERICSSON of $1,060,570,432.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Today Swedish telecom giant Ericsson has admitted to a years-long campaign of corruption in five countries to solidify its grip on telecommunications business. Through slush funds, bribes, gifts, and graft, Ericsson conducted telecom business with the guiding principle that ‘money talks.’ Today’s guilty plea and surrender of over a billion dollars in combined penalties should communicate clearly to all corporate actors that doing business this way will not be tolerated.”
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ericsson-agrees-pay-more-1-billion-resolve-foreign-corrupt-practices-act-case
Los Angeles Man Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Scheme to Defraud American Express and Account
Los Angeles Man Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Scheme to Defraud American Express and Account Holders NationwideSACRAMENTO, Calif. — U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. sentenced Ruslan Kirilyuk, 41, of Beverly Hills, to 27 years in prison for his involvement in an international credit card fraud scheme targeting card holders nationwide, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.
According to evidence presented at trial, between October 5, 2011, and March 5, 2014, Kirilyuk conspired with Mihran Melkonyan, 39, of Sacramento; Rouslan Akhmerov, 45, of Studio City; Alexandr Maslov, 38, of Sacramento, and others in a credit card billing scheme that involved creating approximately 71 fraudulent online companies established with the sole purpose of fraudulently charging approximately 119,000 stolen credit card numbers. In total, the members of the scheme billed the stolen credit card numbers for over $3.4 million in unauthorized charges.
As established at trial, to create the fraudulent companies, the members of the scheme obtained over 200 stolen report cards from the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento. Those report cards had students’ personal identifying information on them such as names and social security numbers. Using that information, Kirilyuk and his associates created fraudulent companies with names designed to sound like real companies, such as “CVS Store,” “Walt Mart,” and “Chevran.”
Working with a hacker based in Moscow, they used those fraudulent companies to charge stolen American Express credit card account numbers. In order to transfer the stolen money, they used shell bank accounts held in the names of individuals whose identities had been stolen and former Russian J-1 visa holders. According to court documents, Kirilyuk has a history of corporate cyberintrusion dating back to at least 2003.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/los-angeles-man-sentenced-27-years-prison-scheme-defraud-american-express-and-account
Seven Defendants Charged in $11.5 Million Fraud Case: Lawyer and Tax Preparer Helped Five Defendants
Seven Defendants Charged in $11.5 Million Fraud Case: Lawyer and Tax Preparer Helped Five Defendants with False Discrimination ClaimsLITTLE ROCK—Five individuals and an attorney have been charged with defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of over $11.5 million that was intended to benefit farmers who had been discriminated against. The indictment alleges that four sisters, one of their daughters, and a lawyer worked together to submit false claims concerning discrimination against farmers who are black, Hispanic, or female. The women also hired a tax preparer to falsify tax returns, resulting in failure to report over $4.6 million to the Internal Revenue Service.
Cody Hiland, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Dax Roberson, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, and Tamera Cantu, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, announced the indictment, which was handed down by a federal grand jury on Thursday afternoon and made public today.
The indictment alleges that from 2008 until 2017, five defendants solicited people to file false claims asserting they were discriminated against when they tried to get assistance from USDA for their farming operations. Four of the defendants—Lynda Charles, Rosie Bryant, Delois Bryant, and Brenda Sherpell—are sisters. A fifth defendant, Niki Charles, is the daughter of Lynda Charles. A sixth defendant, Everett Martindale, worked as an attorney and acted as the legal representative for most of the claimants that the five women recruited. A seventh defendant, Jerry Green, worked as a tax preparer, and the indictment alleges that he filed false tax returns for some of the claimants.
According to the indictment, claims were submitted under two programs: the Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation (BFDL) Settlement and the Hispanic and Women Farmers and Ranchers (HWFR) Litigation. The BFDL Settlement resulted from a class action lawsuit filed in 1997 in which a group of black farmers claimed they had been discriminated against when they applied for farm credit, credit servicing, or farm benefits from USDA. Similarly, the HWFR Litigation originated when groups of Hispanic and women farmers filed separate lawsuits against USDA, also alleging discrimination in their farm benefit programs.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edar/pr/seven-defendants-charged-115-million-fraud-case-lawyer-and-tax-preparer-helped-five
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 112,110
